Earlier today we announced that Gideon Lichfield is joining Quartz as our global news editor, and we couldn’t be more excited.

As we began sharing our vision for Quartz this winter, several people volunteered that Gideon would be the perfect person to work on this project. He is a deep thinker on digital media who speaks five languages fluently and has reported everywhere from Moscow to Mexico City — in other words, exactly what we were looking for.

Gideon comes to us from The Economist, where he has worked in various capacities since 1996. He is currently serving as the magazine’s media editor, and previous responsibilities have ranged from documentary film to e-learning to The Economist’s website, as well as three bureau chief postings.

Gideon shares our conviction that there’s a huge opportunity in providing quality coverage of the new global economy from a newsroom solely focused on digital platforms. We’re eager for him to now join us in creating it and look forward to his leadership.

You can follow the growing Quartz team on this Twitter list.

—Kevin J. Delaney, editor in chief